PENNSAUKEN – On an afternoon that started with a cool rain and ended in wind and hail, a warm sun shone down as Bishop Dennis Sullivan consecrated the Eucharist during Mass in Cooper River Park.
About 200 faithful of all ages maneuvered their way around blankets and chairs to receive Holy Communion during the Mass celebrated April 3 for the annual iRace4Vocations. This is the first time the event has been held in two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“One of the purposes of this gathering is to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. To get the message out … that God continues to call men to the priesthood and women and men to religious life,” Bishop Sullivan said. “We support and encourage those who may hear God’s call and are brave enough to respond. It takes guts to respond.”
The Bishop reminded every faithful man and woman that it is their responsibility to encourage young people to a vocation, especially when they see that person may have a calling.
“To anyone who may have been thinking about this, fear not. Come and see,” Bishop Sullivan said. Gesturing to the dozen priests, handful of seminarians and number of religious women present for Mass, he encouraged anyone interested in a vocation to talk to those ordained, in formation or in service to God.
Some of those seminarians took part in the Mass, including transitional deacons Cesar Pirateque and Paul Abbruscato. Among the concelebrating priests were Father Robert Hughes, vicar general and moderator of the Curia, and Father Adam Cichoski, diocesan director of vocations. Music was led by Mike Bedics, director of Worship and Christian Initiation for the Camden Diocese, and his wife Molly.
In his homily, Bishop Sullivan spoke of the day’s Gospel reading from John, in which an unnamed woman accused of adultery is brought to Jesus.
“This story is a setup … it’s a trap, and it was arranged by the religious leaders,” he preached. “If Jesus goes against the law of Moses, they can claim he disobeyed religious law. But if he says she should be sentenced to death, the Roman law said that the Jews could not charge anyone with a death sentence. So they could get him for disobeying the civil law.”
Bishop Sullivan went on to explain that a “masterful reversal takes place” in which Jesus turns attention away from himself and the woman and instead puts the spotlight on the accusers.
“Without saying one word, he puts his finger into the dust and begins to write. We don’t know what he wrote, but the religious leaders began to slink away. And then, ‘Let the one without sin throw the first stone.’”
“‘You may go,’ he says to her, ‘but avoid sin,’” Bishop Sullivan said, explaining that the woman “gets a fresh start, a new beginning, a new life, a future, freedom. God is doing something new.”
This encounter, he said, shows that what Jesus did for this woman, he can do for every single person today. “I’ve been a priest for 51 years, and some of the most memorable experiences I’ve had … are when I was able to free someone from the shackles of shame and from the terror of guilt and even, through the Sacrament of Penance, from sin.
“I think of those experiences and think how wonderful … for those who experience the mercy of Jesus Christ,” Bishop Sullivan said, adding that religious, especially women religious “do the same in your teaching and your counseling and in your prayers. I know how many of you have encouraged and assisted someone who needed to experience God’s mercy.
“Returning women and men to life – that’s what the vocation of a priest is all about, and that’s what the vocation of religious life is all about,” he said.
Moments after the conclusion of Mass, strong rains, winds and hail sent many fleeing for shelter. The planned 5k run / 1-mile walk was canceled, but some faithful emerged after the storm to meet and speak with the priests and seminarians who remained.
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